Leaving
by GuessWhatTimeItIs
Summary: An extension of Memory of a Memory.


Leaving

Boots clicked on a dark street, but not against the pavement. Against one another dark soles tapped, an anxious habit the woman wearing them had acquired over the years. Fear did not course through her veins, or blood. A fiend through and through, she brushed her raven hair out of bright red eyes.

Finn was captivated. He had never seen this side of Marceline, had never seen her so serious. In truth, he didn't see her like this even now. The moment stretched out into an eternity, as the woman slowed to a stop as though she was attached to a film that had been slowed. Finn felt a hand on his shoulder, and he turned slowly to look at the instigator.

Jake had a worried look on his face, as he obviously felt a sense of unease in this place. The often boisterous companion was no longer afraid of Marceline, but he was not exactly her best friend either. Jake was uneasy here, not sure what to do, but Finn felt his sense of curiosity get the better of him. Again Finn turned and stared into the memory, seeing the dark woman again regain her speed.

"Finn, we need to find her memory core, remember? We should really get going…" Jake was insistent, but Finn knew he wouldn't get another chance to ask Marceline about these images.

"Just a minute, I won't be long." With that, Finn let the memory flow and envelope him. In a moment, everything was focused, this single memory becoming solid and leaving the disheveled dreamscape of Marceline's mind.

Marceline now stood behind a small bar, someplace Finn had never seen. It was ramshackle, a beaten building with little else to pull it from its surroundings. The back door was clear there, a deep green with old fliers still hanging from little nails. Around the door stood—or rather, floated—a grouping of pale blue forms. Three distinct ghosts floated there, talking in hushed voices. Next to them there were several other surly figures, all unique and uniquely terrifying.

Finn recognized the ghosts, but the others were strange and new to him. He couldn't identify what was different about them, but there was something _off_ about them. As Marceline approached them, the group got quiet and then shared greetings with the dark woman. The ghosts seemed not to care too much about looks, but the others seemed to show her a much more marked respect. She seemed to notice this, and immediately rebuked them.

"Come on guys, seriously. How many times do I have to tell you? Just because I'm the Vampire Queen doesn't mean you have to be all weird about it. Can't we all just hang as vampires?" That was what was wrong. They were vampires. Finn had only ever seen Marceline, but she had occasionally mentioned vampires in passing. It was strange to see others like her.

The small grouping seemed to have acquired all its members, as the group now moved away from the building. One of the ghosts commented dryly about their next plan, and the others laughed darkly in the gloom.

Finn felt a hand on his shoulder again. Jake was no longer waiting; he had begun to pull Finn behind him, moving on ahead as his arm trailed far behind. Finn sighed, leaving the memory behind and moving again through the kaleidoscope of places and people.

Jake hurried Finn on, begging his friend to hurry for the sake of Marceline. They were in her mind to rescue her from this sleep spell, and Jake insisted that they do it as quickly as possible. However, Finn could see straight through his friend's antics, knowing that the quavering canine was just uncomfortable in this sea of emotion and memory.

As they traveled through that maze, Finn came across another memory. He saw one of the vampires there with Marceline. The vampire was a smallish thing, no larger than Finn himself. She hovered beneath the queen, and the two seemed to be speaking quietly, alone. Letting Jake go on ahead, Finn stepped aside to quickly glance at this memory. Again, the memory came into sharp focus as he got close. He could suddenly hear the smaller of the two women speaking.

"Marcie, you can tell me! Why did you join this gang if you don't even care about it?" Her voice was pleading, but unhurt. It sounded like Marceline when Finn had first met her, uncaring but mimicking emotion. A careful façade, a vampire knows just how to speak. Finn knew this well by now, having come to know Marceline's wiles and guile.

"Look, I'm just in this to make my dad angry, ok? He wants me to be some big shot, and hates it when I slum it with anybody. Argh, he cares who I hang out with, but he doesn't think of me otherwise! Ergh…" Marceline was mad, frustrated…and sad. Finn had seen this before, but it was something Marceline hid otherwise. It still hurt to see a friend like this, a friend in need.

Finn's all about helping everyone.

And Glob, right now he can't help. But this is the past, a memory. It might hurt, but it wasn't real. Not real at the moment anyways. Finn dragged himself away from the memory once again, quickly moving to catch up to Jake. His constant companion had stopped, looking forward at a mess of trees and ruins. It was a dark place, some kind of hellish mindscape.

"Do you think we should go that way? It looks…bad." Jake was never one to mince words. He gave a look at Finn, and he knew it was a look of fear. But it was too late to turn back.

"Yep. There's only forward Jake. It's ok though, it has to be close now." Finn couldn't know that, but he was confident. There was something itching in his mind, and it felt like instinct.

Venturing into the dark chasms of Marceline's mind was actually horrifying. Finn and Jake are seasoned adventurers, and though some things do still scare them, the mundane horrors do nothing to their sensibilities. Nevertheless, Marceline had seen things that they could not. She had lived through atrocities that neither could know. There was great pain all around them, these thoughts perhaps the last living memory of a world long gone.

And yet in all these memories, Marceline was detached. She did not feel the pain, she did not grasp the darkness all around her. She cried sometimes, but only at her own misfortune and hurt. But she did not ignore the world. The Vampire Queen simply did not care for them, for her own pains were more present than these distant wrongs.

At once Finn found another memory of Marceline and the gang. Jake warned him not to stray too far, but Finn didn't listen. He plunged into a memory one last time. Immediately there was yelling.

"Well I don't care! I'm getting out of here!" Marceline was floating away from the gang, and as she rounded a corner they disappeared. Finn wondered for a moment before realizing Marceline wouldn't remember what she couldn't see.

When she was out of sight, Marceline fell to the ground. Finn wanted to catch her, to ask what was wrong, but he could not. As she knelt there on the ground, Finn saw tears well up in her eyes. He could do nothing but look on in horror. The immortal, implacable, indestructible Vampire Queen was about to cry. It was profoundly moving.

Finn was close enough that he could hear the pale woman whisper into the darkness.

"They can all burn in hell, I don't care. I won't care. God, why can't I have friends?" With that she wiped away the beginnings of the tears and stood. Sucking in a breath of air, Marceline managed a nasty snarl, before floating off into the night.

"Finn, let's go." Startled, the hero looked to his shoulder. Jake was there, not just tapping him to get attention. Jake had apparently followed his friend into this memory, staying silent the entire time. The two brothers shared a long look before Finn nodded.

"Alright man. Let's get to that memory core." With that they left the memory, coming out before a great many-limbed tree of light.


End file.
